Video Case Study: myCRMcareer

Hear firsthand about the struggles the founders of myCRMcareer experienced when initially incorporating social media features into their site, and what caused them to switch to Neighborhood America. Plus, the business behind it all and the results already realized that impact their bottom-line.

Watch their three-minute customer story here.

Telling Their Stories in Ink

Fans of Men's Health magazine have recently gotten a chance to tell their personal stories in ink -- but not in the traditional sense.

With the help of Neighborhood America, the popular men's publication recently launched Ink Link, an online community that allows readers to upload photos of their tattoos. You'll find everything from Batman's archenemy the Joker on someone's shoulder to Chinese symbols hidden on the small of someone's back. Ink Link lets you the reader decide whether it's a masterpiece or a mistake by encouraging you to rate them on a 10-point scale.

"Getting a tattoo isn't just about putting a picture or some words onto your arm," says Brad Ford, Senior Web Producer at Men's Health. "For most people, getting inked is a way of expressing something meaningful that has happened in their lives, or about embracing an important life lesson or philosophy that has affected them."

Brad adds that the work done by Neighborhood America helped to make Ink Link more user friendly by simplifying the registration process and other steps to allow readers to participate faster and more easily.

"We wanted the tattoo rating function to be really in your face," says Brad. "It also had to be fast enough to allow readers to vote on each photo quickly, and then move on to the next. We're really happy with what we've got."

"We understand each other's expectations, and the type of relationship that we have with the customer reflects that," says Stephanie Pera, Senior Project Manager at Neighborhood America. "Men's Health sought our expertise to add features that would keep visitors interested in coming back to check out the newest tattoos that had been uploaded each day, and we delivered."

Ink Link is the fourth project that Men's Health has partnered with Neighborhood America on, according to Neighborhood America's Customer Account Executive, Dave Coovert. He adds that the other projects were also body image related, but focused on helping readers lose weight, such as the "Belly Off! Club" initiative that the magazine runs seasonally.

"Ink Link is completely unique," says Dave. "It allows the publication's readers to connect with each other and interact in an original and entertaining way."

I know you're curious... so just do it! Rate your favorites now at http://www.menshealth.com/tattoo/.

Featured MOVO Customer: Remy Martin
Learn how you can go mobile by visiting MOVOmobile.com

Not Your Grandfather's Cognac

What's that... strobe lights... music pumping... and a trendy crowd? Wait a minute...

If you're seeing a hopping night club in what should be a vacant storefront, you're not losing it - at least not if you're at West Broadway and Prince Street, in NYC's super hot Soho district. The fabulous nightclub scene is actually a virtual interactive display created as part of Cognac-king Remy Martin's ultra cool Chill campaign, taking place in six major metropolitan areas across the country through Nov 15.

"The virtual night club is part of the WAP (a website formatted for easy viewing on mobile phones) campaign that allows passers-by to text-in a keyword via their mobile phones to receive special invitations to Remy VIP tasting events in nightclubs throughout the city," said Neighborhood America Customer Account Executive, Andrea Kostiuk, who added that the night club scene is activated by the motion of people walking by. "There is even a bouncer who appears to give viewers the key word," she said.

To tie all of the mobile aspects of the campaign together, the brand turned to Neighborhood America's MOVO Mobile. "Our mobile solution has helped to pull all of the terrific elements of this campaign together seamlessly in a medium that the target audience relates to very well," said Andrea, who also remarks that the "instant" aspects of the campaign's message are what have made it work so effectively.

The Chill campaign is part of Remy Martin's effort to reintroduce their label to a whole new generation of cognac drinkers, aged 21-40, and so, the brand is hitting the club scene with more than 300 tasting events at hotspots nation wide.

Newark, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco are other cities that will host the campaign, however, for now New York is the only location with a virtual night club.
"The campaign is working beautifully," said Andrea. "Remy is making VOSP the ‘It' drink for a whole new generation."

Neighborhood America Honored with the Excellence in IT Leadership Award

"We are honored to win this award, and pleased to provide a solution that so fully and efficiently supports the critical interaction between citizens and government," says Dan Bevarly, Neighborhood America's Sr. Director of Business Development, regarding the company's recent win of the Excellence in IT Leadership Award for the Southwest Region.

The announcement of the award was made to a large crowd at the Sixth Annual Awards Gala and Tech Forum held at Disney World's Contemporary Resort in Orlando, Florida.

"This year's gala was like no other before it," said Jim Albert, Chair of IT Florida. "We had a record number of nominations in 2008, and an exceptionally strong group of finalists."

The purpose of the award was to recognize the impact that the evolving use of Web technologies continues to have on the Information Age and to honor a company, government agency or organization that has successfully created new technologies or applied new solutions that fall under the Web 2.0 umbrella.

Founded in 1999, Neighborhood America pioneered one of the first SaaS (Software as a Service) products on the market - a technology born with the vision of helping government better communicate via the internet. The company's collaborative technology provides government a central source for project information via a private website. Originally designed to facilitate meaningful public comment in the government sector, the company enhanced its initial offerings to bring Web and Mobile 2.0 solutions to the enterprise.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) delivered a keynote at the event, emphasizing the critical importance of ensuring a highly qualified, technical workforce that can sustain the progress that Florida has made as a growing technology economy - an initiative of primary importance to IT Florida, and also a key goal of Neighborhood America.

"It is always an honor to receive an award in our home state," said Dan, who added that changes in the economic climate and other factors within the public sector have increased both state and national attention on issues of citizen's access to government. "It is certainly an affirmation that we're doing things the right way," said Dan.

2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards Finalist

Neighborhood America was named a finalist in the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Award competition. The Groundswell Awards honor excellent and effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or corporate goal. Applicants must provide compelling data and metrics that provide proof of business value.

The global competition drew 150 submissions, which were filtered down to a handful of finalists within each category. Neighborhood America's entry, Men's Health's Belly Off! Club, was named a finalist in the 'Supporting' category.

Social technologies enable club members to interact and support each other while participating in an eight-week program toward trimming their bellies, getting fit and reclaiming a healthful body. The community drove a 10x ROI for Neighborhood America's customer, Rodale (publisher of Men's Health).

Check out the other finalists.

N.A.M.E.S. Wants to Spread Holiday Cheer

Neighborhood America's community outreach group, N.A.M.E.S, is turning to you for ideas on how to spread holiday cheer this giving season?

Please take a minute to submit your ideas for a fundraiser or organization to support (i.e. bake sale or toy drive where funds can go towards supporting a certain organization).

You can help us make a difference in someone's life. Submit ideas here.

When CMO's Talk

How do you start a conversation among a room full of the country's top Chief Marketing Officers? Simply tell them the best ways to employ the latest and most effective social media strategies for increasing sales, improving business partner relationships and maximizing employee communications -- and the conversation is likely to get rolling pretty quickly.

Just ask Neighborhood America's Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Dan Miller, who recently led a discussion on the topic at a meeting of The CMO Club at Opia restaurant in New York.

His presentation titled, "Leveraging Social Media Strategies to Improve Your Existing Customer and Employee Networks," got the evening's conversation off to an enthusiastic start, among the 27 CMO's who attended from firms representing a diverse range of industries.

"It was terrific," said Dan. "Marketing executives today are keenly aware of the importance of social media as a key component to their brand's success. But in addition, learning how to employ social media effectively can vastly improve business partner relations and even employee communications as well. I can't imagine any CMO that wouldn't want to be a part of that conversation."

"The CMO Club is an exclusive organization of the very top CMO's from around the country," said Club Founder and President, Pete Krainik, who added that membership is by invitation only. The group's mission is to provide an environment of peer-to-peer networking, insight, openness and contribution that enables its members to help each other become better CMO's. Meetings typically begin with a presentation by an industry expert on a topic of interest to the entire membership. The formal talk is followed by an informal conversation around the issue that is led by the expert and based on the attending member's specific concerns and questions.

Pete remarked that Dan's talk also included several Neighborhood America case studies, which were particularly illustrative for the group.

"Marketing professionals recognize the vital importance of working proficiently with these solutions and were highly interested to see how the have been applied for desirable results," said Pete.

To learn more about The CMO Club, visit: http://www.TheCMOclub.com/

Strategy as the Key Element for Success

It's a whole new and rapidly changing world out there when it comes to communicating with customers. Today's technology offers a range of options that have changed the landscape of possibilities for presenting marketing and other messages in non-traditional environments. But these tools aren't just for customer communications. They are also ideal for employees, business partners and just about everyone else that plays a part in a brand's success.

"The key is developing a comprehensive strategy that includes ongoing, two-way and multi-tiered communication with all of the brand's audiences - internal and external," said Michael Thomas, Neighborhood America's Director of CRM and Social Media Strategy.

Michael recently spoke on the subject at the Communintelligence Conference in Atlanta. The objective of the conference was to communicate the latest and best practices for executing social media strategies across a range of business, public sector and other environments. The conference was attended by organizations in a highly diverse range of industries, from large, private-sector corporations such as IBM and UPS, to the Department of Armed Services, and even the Cherokee Nation.

"The fact that the audience was so varied indicates that marketing and other executives already understand the importance of incorporating the newest media into their larger communications efforts, now they are interested in learning how to do well," says Michael.

Michael's formal presentation focused on strategy as the key element for success. "The technology alone won't equal success. It must be used appropriately as part of an overall and thoughtfully conceived plan," he said.

A less formal breakout session followed Michael's talk, and there, the questions became far more specific. "Twitter (a micro-blogging service that allows users to read other user's text-based updates) was a big topic, for example," said Michael. Attendants were interested in learning how to incorporate this, and other new options into what they're already doing to grow their businesses and maintain positive employee communication."

Michael remarked that large companies appear to be leading the way, when it comes to taking full advantage of all of the latest tools, but he added that organizations of all sizes are highly interested, and that it won't be long before just about everybody's taking advantage of all of the latest and best possibilities.